Date Night Rituals
by Nunda
Summary: Everyone has their own date night rituals. His just happens to be blackmail material.


"**Date Night Rituals"**

**by Nunda**

/A.N./ Okay, so I have no idea where this idea came from. It's a short one-shot in Casey's P.O.V. It helps to listen to Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" while reading this. Lol.

Disclaimer: Don't own the show. Don't own Rod Stewart, thank goodness.

It was like walking into a nightmare. I surely didn't expect this after coming home from dance practice.

I could hear the music before I reached the door. I glanced nervously back at Kandi's mom, who dropped me off. I shrugged and waved goodbye to her. There was not another car in the driveway which lead me to wonder—who was playing that music so loudly?

I slid my key in the door and instantly recognized the song. Rod Stewart's "_Da Ya Think I'm Sexy_"? What the hell?

I slowly walked through the house and toward the kitchen where the music was coming from.

"Hello?" I called out cautiously.

Suddenly, I stopped—stricken with fear. What if I was walking into a burglary? Right. Like burglars always break into a house and play cheesy seventies music. Good one, Casey. Who else could be listening to that? Not even George listened to that kind of music and he was old.

Peering around the doorway, I was shocked.

Clad only in boxers and white socks, dancing across the newly-mopped kitchen floor was the king of cool, Derek Venturi. His back was turned to me and I fought to swallow laughter. But I couldn't contain myself for long and soon, I was gripping my knees laughing until tears formed in my eyes.

Derek spun around and looked at me with a mixture of annoyance and embarrassment.

"Casey, what are you doing here?" He said, trying to sound cooler about the situation than he really was. He quickly swiped at his stereo, turning the volume down.

"Dance practice was cut short today." I replied between laughter. "What are _you_ doing?"

"It's date night. I'm waiting for my clothes to dry." He answered. Suddenly he became very aware of how under dressed he was. He ran to the laundry room and grabbed a pair of jeans from the dryer.

"Do you always do this on date nights?" I asked with a hint of mockery. It was not often that I ever had blackmail over the great Venturi. Okay, so I've never had blackmail over him. This could be good.

He shot a glare of annoyance at me. Then he retorted, "Wouldn't you like to know what I do on date nights?"

Shirtless, he walked up to me and pointed his finger in my face.

"Listen, Casey—you can't tell anyone about tonight. Okay?"

Okay, so I had to laugh at that. Surely he did not think that I would keep this little gem to myself. What, with the whole klutzilla incident? Ha!

"Sorry, I don't think I can do that." I smiled. I reached in the cabinet for a glass and filled it with tap water. All that laughing made me incredibly thirsty. Derek shot an eyebrow up at me as I leaned against the counter, drinking my water.

"What did you say?" He said incredulously. Which, I mean, of course he was having a hard time believing it. He was used to barking out orders to Edwin, who of course jumped every time Derek commanded him to.

Derek moved closer to me and put one hand on either side of me on the countertop, locking me in position-- his eyes boring into me.

I shrugged as if I wasn't at all bothered by his closeness and said, "There's no way I can keep something like this to myself."

Derek, stone faced, moved closer to me. His face became dangerously close to mine. I pushed at his chest.

"Come on, Derek, knock it off." I said.

He didn't move. At least not in the direction I wanted him to move—far away from me as possible. Instead, he crept closer to me.

"You tell anyone…" He said with his lips above mine. His lips briefly brushed over mine and I felt myself leaning in to his kiss. Suddenly, he jerked away menacingly. "…and I'll tell them you wanted to kiss me."

My hand instantly sprung up to my lips, which were tingling from his touch. What the hell just happened? I didn't want to kiss him. Right?

I could see him smirking at me as he pulled a t-shirt over his head.

"But I…I uh…" I tried to think of something sarcastic or witty to throw at him. I mean something other than the stammering, mumbling mess that I was spewing uncontrollably.

"What was that?" He demanded sarcastically. How did the tables get turned so quickly? How did he get in control of the situation?

"Can you maybe speak up a little louder? And hurry up because I'm going to be late for a date."

I glared at him. "I hate you!" I shouted.

He just smiled. "So is that why you wanted to kiss me? Because you hate me so much?"

"Have fun on your date, _Rod_." I said sarcastically. I turned away from him and busied myself with refilling my water glass. So what if I only took two sips of it? I was thirsty, dammit.

"I'll be thinking only of you, _lover_." He said, matching my sarcasm.

I chose to ignore him and didn't turn back around until I heard the front door close.

_I almost kissed my stepbrother._

I shook the uneasy feeling away and went upstairs to finish up my homework. I would've had it done already but then there was the whole dance practice after school.

Several minutes later, the rest of the family began trickling in. I sighed with relief. Finally—some normalcy.

If only my lips would stop tingling.

**So, review and let me know what you thought. I had this written for a while and just now got around to posting it.**


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